Beschreibung
The volume contains the first modern commentary entirely dedicated to the epigrams of Leonidas of Alexandria, a 1st century AD poet affiliated with the imperial court. Leonidas claim to fame lies with his composition of the so-called isopsephic distichs, a peculiar example of technopaegnion. The book includes an exhaustive introduction, tracing the figure of the author and discussing the transmission of the text as well as the treatment of the isopsephic method by modern scholars. Furthermore, the introduction offers a synthesis of Leonidas work from the literary, stylistic, and prosodic point of view, presenting it in the broader context of the Imperial Age and comparing it to the extant isopsephic writings. The main body of the book consists in the critical edition of circa 40 epigrams, and a line-by-line philological, literary and explanatory commentary, coupled with the reconstruction - where possible - of historical circumstances. While appreciating Leonidas experiments with the epigrammatic form, the analysis presented in the book encompasses poems whose worth goes beyond their isopsephic structure and which, considering their dazzling variety of topics, constitute a prime example of Greek epigram in the Imperial Age.
Autorenporträt
Vittoria Dozza, University of Bologna, Italy.
Herstellerkennzeichnung:
Walter de Gruyter GmbH
De Gruyter GmbH
Genthiner Strasse 13
10785 Berlin
DE
E-Mail: productsafety@degruyterbrill.com
